Dispensing device



Oct. 16, 1956 H, HElNlG 2,766,905

DISPENSING DEVICE Filed Oct. 23, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheef l INVENTOR. HUGHE$ HEI IG- 1 .1 BY J .fim/wm ATTORNEY Oct. 16, 1956 H. HEINIG 2,766,905

DISPENSING DEVICE Filed on. 25, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. HUGHES Hams.

ATTORNEY.

Oct. 16, 1956 H. HElNlG DISPENSING DEVICE 4 Shets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 23. 195? INVENTOR. amiss Menus.

Oct. 16, 1956 H. HEINIG 7 2,766,905

DISPENSING DEVICE Filed Oct. 23,. 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 34 1 Mill III IN VEN TOR. Huanas Helms.

AT'FORNEY United rates Patent DISPENSHNG DEVICE Hughes Heinig, Detroit, Mich.

Application October 23, 1952, Serial No. 316,428

1 Claim. (Cl. 221-83) This invention relates to dispensing devices, and more particularly to a novel coin controlled dispenser.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a novel and simplified dispensing device which is particularly adapted for dispensing icecream cones.

It is the further object of this invention to provide a dispensing mechanism which is inexpensive to manufacture and which has a minimum number of moving arts. P These and other objects will be seen from the following'specification and claim in conjunction with the appended drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of the dispensing device with the front Wall partially broken away for illustration.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary partially diagrammatic View illustrating the drum operating mechanism.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational View of a portion of the drum with its end wall removed; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary plan view of a portion of said drum illustrating the circularly offset sets of radial compartments.

It will be understood that the above drawings illustrate merely a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that other embodiments are contemplated within the scope of the claim hereafter set forth.

Referring to the drawings, the present dispensing device consists of a hollow upright body with front wall 11, side Walls 12 and 13, top and bottom walls 14 and 15, and rear wall '16. There is fragmentarily illustrated a portion of insulation 17, which preferably is applied to the inner surfaces of each of said wall portions, particularly where the body is to be refrigerated.

Positioned at the upper end of said body are a plurality of separate laterally spaced drum housings 18, 19, 20 and 21, each adapted to house a separately rotatable article storage drum in the manner hereafter described.

As each of said drums is of the same construction, the description hereafter will be directed to drum housing 18 and the drum therein, and particularly as Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 33 of Fig. 1.

Drum housing 18 includes a semi-circular stationary element 22, which is secured at points 23 and 23' to the top wall 14, and which includes the parallel spaced upright semi-circularly shaped side wall elements 24 and 25 designated in Fig. 1. Housing 18 also includes a separate semi-circularly shaped cover element 26 with parallel spaced semi-circular side wall elements 27 and 28, said cover being hinged at 29 to the top wall 14.

Cover 26 is upwardly openable as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, to provide access to the rotatable drum 32, which is journalled Within said drum housing. Cover 26 includes a transversely apertured locking clip 30, which with said cover closed cooperatively registers with a similarly apertured locking post 31 secured to the stationary portion of said drum housing. If desired, a padlock or other device may be provided for locking the cover 26 in closed position.

Referring to Fig. 6, rotatable drum 32 has a pair of discs 33 and 37 in parallel spaced relation defining the upright end walls thereof. Intermediate end walls 33 and 37 are a plurality of parallel spaced circular discs 34, 35, 36 to thereby define within said drum a plurality of independent circular openings.

Within each of said circular openings, there are provided a plurality of spaced radially directed partitions 38 secured to adjacent end plates, such as plates 33 and 34, as at points 39 and 40, to thereby define throughout the periphery of each of said circular openings a plurality of sets of circularly arranged radially directed article storage compartments A, B, C, and D respectively.

It will be noted from Fig. 6 that the compartments in one set are circularly olfset a predetermined distance as indicated by the designation 41, with respect to an adjacent set of compartments. It will be noted that there are transverse slots 42 at the inner ends of said compartments formed by the converging partitions 38, within which are stored the cones 43, filled with icecream of a predetermined flavor.

As illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5, a transverse outlet 44 is formed in the bottom of the drum housing element 22 through which the cones 43 are adapted to successively drop from the various compartments A, B, C, and D formed within said drum.

The above described circular offset of the compartments of adjacent sets thus provides that no more than one compartment will be in registry with the outlet 44 for any particular position of rotation of the drum 32.

For illustration, referring to Figs. 5 and 6, if the compartment A is in registry with the outlet 44, compartments B, C, and D will be out of registry so that only the cone in the particular compartment A will drop by gravity through said outlet 44. Upon a slight incremental rotary movement of drum 32, a short distance, as indicated by the offset distance 41, the cone in compartment B will then be in registry with said outlet so that the same will drop by gravity through said outlet.

successively, an additional short rotary movement of said drum will place compartment C in registry with outlet 44, and thereafter an additional increment of rotation will place compartment D in registry with outlet 44.

By this arrangement, it is apparent that a large number of cones may be stored within the drum and that only a slight rotary movement of the drum is required for dispensing the cones successively and alternately from the adjacent compartments in the various sets of such compartments.

It is contemplated that the stationary element 22 of drum housing 18 will cooperate with the peripheral outlets of the various compartments for retaining the articles within said drum.

The present preferred embodiment of the invention, however, illustrates a rectangular gate 45, which is hinged at one end at 46 to a peripheral portion of drum 32 and with its other end adapted to bear against the interior portions of drum housing element 22, to thereby maintain the gate 45 substantially closing off said compartments and maintaining the cones 43 therein.

Consequently, for a certain portion of the rotation of said drum, the outer end of the gate 45 will ride along the interior surface of drum housing element 22 until said gate registers with opening 44. At which time, the gate will drop by gravity about its hinge 46 to the vertical position shown in Fig. 5. This will permit the cone 43 to drop out of its compartment and through the slot 44 and down the chute in the manner hereafter described. It furthermore follows that continued rotation of drum 32 will mechanically close the gate 45 by virtue of the engagement of the bounding wall of the outlet 44 in housing element '22.

Horizontally arranged shaft'45' extends through drum 32 and is suitably secured thereto, such as at 46,,and the outwardly projecting ends of shaft 45" aregjournalled' within the bearings 47, which are illustrated-in Fig. 1.

between and upon a pair of spaced guideways 50. Plunger 51 extending from'solenoid 52 is secured at its:

outer end to the trap door 49, 'so that momentary energization of said solenoid Will withdraw said trap door from the path of downward movement of cone 43 and permit' the same to enter delivery chamber 54, which has a bounding bottom wall 53, and which represents the lower end of said chute.

The door 55, of which there is one corresponding to each of the drum housings, is hinged to front Wall 11 at 57 and may be opened, upwardly by handle 56'to permit manual access to the dispensed cone 43 within chamber 54.

The chute 47 includes the upright spaced side walls 53 and 59, which cooperate with the interior surface of front wall 11 thereby completing the chute construction.

Cone storage shelf 60' is provided within the lower portion of the dispenser body as illustratedin Fig. 3; and as shown in Fig. 2, a suitable refrigerating mechanism 61 is positioned upon the bottom wall 15, which operates in a conventional manner. of the refrigerating mechanism forms no part" of the present invention and consequently a detailed description thereof is omitted. It will be noted, however, that-the refrigerating mechanism is'adapted to supply a refrigerant through the coil 61', which will terminate in any desired part of the housing orwithin the drum housing for refrigerating the interiors thereof.

As shown in Fig. 1, there is provided a coin receiving slot 62 adjacent to and corresponding-to each of the drum' housings 18, 19, and 21; and said coin slots are associated with a suitable coin control mechanism for permitting release of the manually reciprocal plunger 63 upon the insertion of a suitable coin. The construction of the coin control mechanism forms no part of the present invention as it may be purchased on the open market, and consequently the exact detail of its structure and the description thereofv is omitted herein. Itis sufficient to The detail of the mechanism state that the mechanism is such that insertion-of the proper coin within the slot 62 willreleasethe plunger 63,

so that it may be manually withdrawn for effecting-a slight incremental rotary movement of the corresponding drum 32.

Referringto'Fig. 4, the plunger-63 has inwardly pro-' jecting therefrom an arm 64 carrying a pawl 65 adapted for cooperative driving engagement With'the ratchet wheel 66, which is secured, such as by the key 67 to the rotatable Switch actuating bar 70 depends from arm 64 and engages one end 'of aspring 71, which is anchored at 72; Consequently, outward movement of the plunger 63 and arm 64 compresses spring 71 and said spring is effective for returning said arm and plunger to its original position, so that the pawl 65 engages the next succeeding ratchet on ratchet wheel 66.

The depending bar 70 upon outward movement with plunger 63 engagesthe switch element 73'of the electrical switch 74. Said switch is connected by the lead wire 75 to the power line 76. There isa second-lead wire 77 which connects the switch '74 with the solenoid 52 shown in Fig. 3, so that'outward movement of plunger 63 momentarily energizessolenoid This eifects an inward movement of the spring biased plunger 51, which connects trap door 49, and permits the dispensed cone 43 to fall within the delivery chamber 54, which terminates in an opening in front wall 11 covered by the door 55.

The electrical circuit from the solenoid is completed'by an additional lead wire 78,which joins the second powera separate coin'controlled manually operable plunger 63 for each of the cone containing drums 32 of the variousdrum housings.

Having described'my invention, reference should now be had to the clairnwhich followsfor determining thescope thereof.

I claim:

In a dispensing device having a drum housing with an: outlet at its bottom and a drum rotatably journale'dtherein on a horizontal axis with a plurality of circularly arranged radial storage compartments in sets open at the drum periphery and. adapted to be'successively registerable with said outlet on intermittent rotation-of said drum; a chute registerable at its upper end with said outlet and with its lower end terminating at the front of the dispensing device, acoin controlled manually slidable longitudinally movable arm, a horizontally reciprocal trap door normally blocking the lower end of said chute,'a

spring normallyj holding said door closed, a solenoid joined to said door, and an electric'switch'connected into a circuit including a power source with said solenoid and engageable by said arm onlongitudinal movement thereof for momentarily activating said solenoid to open said door.

ReferencesCitedin the file of thisipatentl UNITED STATES PATENTS 435,901 Olmsted Sept. 2, 18 901 747,216 Pedersen Dec. '15, 1903 1,116,599 r 'Madsen Nov. 10, 1914. 1,403,599 Goudeau IanLl7, 1922. 1,578,986 Graves Mar. 30, 1926 1,940,005 McKee Dec. 19, 1933 2,279,093 Peters Apr: 7, 1942 2,408,444 Payne Oct. 1,:1946

FOREIGN PATENTS 611,054 Great Britain of 1948 104,087 Australia of 1938 

